By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Wellington, Fla.-February 26, 2026—U.S. rider Meagan Davis continued her ground-breaking season on Toronto Lightfoot, seizing her fourth win of the year to date in the Donato Farms CDI4* Grand Prix as last to go in the class of eight. They scored 72.108%, logging yet another new personal best in 2026, an ideal way to herald the eighth week of the 2026 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF), which is Palm Beach Derby week, a show dedicated to the late Mary Anne McPhail.
Meagan Davis & Toronto Lightfoot. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén, Sweden’s seven-time Olympian and a familiar face at AGDF over the years, finished second with Hyatt, a 14-year-old Apache-sired mare she rides for Lövsta Stuteri. Three of the judges placed the duo first, but their eventual 71.544% meant they had to settle for the runner-up spot. Ashley Holzer (USA) rounded out the top three with 68.478% on her and Diane Fellows’s 14-year-old Hawtins San Floriana (San Amour x Florestan).
Davis and Toronto Lightfoot received scores of more than 74% from two experienced judges, Christoph Umbach (LUX) at C, and Germany’s Katrina Wüst at M. Davis has been riding Scott Durkin’s 13-year-old by Totilas since finding him at Helgstrand Dressage in Wellington in 2022, and they stepped up to CDI grand prix in September 2024. He is the 36-year-old rider’s first and only senior international horse.
Watch The Winning Test
“Today, we had true power in the test,” said Davis, who spends summers in Saugerties, NY, and winters in Loxahatchee, FL. “It was exciting to feel those hind legs up and ready underneath my seat bones; whenever I asked, there was more power. Every time we enter that ring, it’s about figuring out how we add the next component. Today we had the energy, and we had the softness over the topline, which is what we’ve been going for the whole season.
“Toronto can be a little looky, but we’ve found that when he’s up in a nice frame, he’s ready for action and follows the lead that I give him, which is super,” continued Davis. “This is definitely one of my biggest wins, and it means a lot because I love the Derby—it used to be across the street from our house—and because of losing Mary last year.”
Meagan Davis & Toronto Lightfoot are presented as winners of the Donato Farms CDI4* Grand Prix. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Davis attributes much of the horse’s improvement to carefully managing him like the professional athlete that he is.
“He gets all the things that any horse could ever want to feel his best,” she explained. “We do his sport innovations: the magnetic blanket, vibrating blanket—he does not want for anything, which I think is necessary for a top athlete.”
Davis would like to make her debut on a U.S. Nations Cup team this year, while her biggest goal is to get onto the squad of U.S. riders who travel to Europe to compete in the summer.
Davis and Toronto will now contest the Donato Farms CDI4* Grand Prix Special, which—along with the Donato Farms CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle—takes place on Friday evening.
Click here for full results from the Donato Farms CDI4* Grand Prix.
Zen Elite Horses on Form
In the Mission Control CDI3* Grand Prix, the top three were tightly packed, with just 0.34 percentage points between them, and less than two percentage points between first and seventh places. Endel Ots (USA) emerged the victor on Zen Elite Equestrian’s Bohemian, with whom he was selected as the reserve for the U.S. team for the Paris 2024 Olympics. He and the 16-year-old Westphalian gelding by Bordeaux x Samarant scored 69.261%.
Endel Ots & Bohemian are presented as winners of the Mission Control CDI3* Grand Prix. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Ots’s compatriot Christian Simonson—who was the winner for two of the judges—occupied second place on another Zen Elite Equestrian horse, Fleau De Baian. The Jazz x Ulft stallion, also 16 years old, scored 69.065%. Tina Konyot assisted in the U.S. show of strength in the class, finishing third with 68.913% on her own and Earle I Mack LLC’s Everdale 12-year-old, Grover.
Click here for full results from the Mission Control CDI3* Grand Prix.
U.S. Olympic team silver medalist Adrienne Lyle made her international debut on the much-admired 10-year-old Hussmanns Topgun in the Garaman Lusitanos CDI1* FEI Prix St. Georges. She led the way with 71.872% on Zen Elite Equestrian’s 10-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding. Until now, Topgun had only shown nationally, albeit with consistently high scores. The tall, loose-moving Totilas x Belissimo M gelding raked in high marks for his canter work, though a hint of a jog in the extended walk, which carries a doubling coefficient, was costly.
Adrienne Lyle & Hussmanns Topgun. Photo ©Centre Line Media
Palm Beach Derby Gets Underway
In the opening round of the 43rd running of the Palm Beach Dressage Derby, each of the three selected horses—Ramble On, Esquire WS and Ghandi—performed a Prix St. Georges test with their usual riders. In the knock-out rounds on Friday night, in which top riders team up with unfamiliar horses and tackle the Prix St. Georges under test conditions, two semi-finals will determine which riders will go head-to-head in the final, to be held during the break in the ‘Friday Night Stars’ evening program.
Click for complete start lists and scores from AGDF 8.
Dressage competition at AGDF 8 resumes on Friday, 27 February, a day that includes AGDF’s signature Friday night gala, free for spectators to watch in person and on the livestream. AGDF hosts seven weeks of CDI competition and weekly national shows over the first three months of the year, running through March 29. For more information, visit www.wellingtoninternational.com.
